Miscarriages of justice occur far more frequently than we realise and have the power to ruin people’s lives. It is crucial for criminal justice practitioners to understand them, given significant developments in recent years in law and police codes of practice.

This text, part of the Key themes in policing textbook series, is written by three highly experienced authors with expertise in the fields of criminal investigation, forensic psychology and law and provides an up-to-date and comprehensive analysis of miscarriages of justice. They highlight difficulties in defining miscarriages of justice, examine their dimensions, forms, scale and impact and explore key cases and their causes. Discussing informal and formal remedies against miscarriages of justice, such as campaigns and the role of the media and the Court of Appeal and the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), they highlight criticism of the activities and decision-making of the latter and examine changes to police investigation in this area.

Designed to incorporate ‘evidence-based policing’, each chapter provides questions reflecting on the issues raised in the text and suggestions for further reading.